Time With Family and Friends In California

Hello again, welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on Saturday, June 29^th, a few days after we arrived in Santa Maria, California for a two week stay visiting family in the area. Sunday we enjoyed the paper with our coffee, then after lunch we went out to do some geocaching. Having spent a great deal of time in Pahrump this year, where there are very few geocaches which are both accessible to us and which we haven't already found. As a result, we haven't done much geocaching. It was good to get out and spend a few hours really caching. We were able to get nine new finds, and three DNFs in the course of about two and a half hours. After caching we went back to the coach and just relaxed for the rest of the day.

Monday, July 1^st, the middle of the year. We left the Elks about 11:30 and drove to the town of Arroyo Grande, about 15 miles north, to go to the movies. We saw the movie Yesterday, which was an interesting and entertaining romantic comedy. It was about an aspiring singer/song writer who was not having much luck until an odd, and mostly unexplained, glitch in the time/space continuum occurred. All the power everywhere in the world went out for 12 seconds and when it came back on there were a number of things which had never occurred, including cigarettes, Coca Cola, and The Beatles. However, at the exact moment of the blackout our hero singer got hit by a bus and knocked unconscious. His memory was not affected, so he remembered all these things that no one else did. He started doing what he thought were covers of Beatles songs, but to everyone else in the world they had no memories of them. He ended up wildly popular and famous for “writing” and performing all the songs by the Beatles. At the end he got a conscience, admitted his fraud, released all the songs online for free, then, of course, got the girl in the end. An unusual premise that could have been handled better, but the story was fun and the music was great. If you like the Beatles and romantic comedy, then this is a good movie for you, even if you have to suspend belief to “get it.” After the movie we drove up to Pismo Beach and met Donna's grandson Corey in Scotty's, one of the local bars. He had a caretaker for Donna for the day. We had a couple of drinks, then drove up to the house for an hour or so and spent some time with Donna. About 6:00 we left and on the way back to Santa Maria we stopped at a Mexican restaurant in Nipomo for dinner. Las Conzuelas was very good and we had a great dinner. We then drove to the coach, watched some TV and went to bed.

Tuesday, July 2^nd, we had a stay at home day. I got a lot of chores done including installing a new TV in the bedroom. About four years ago I updated the TV in the bedroom, removing the old, heavy tube type TV and putting in a small, 22 inch LED. This also opened up a big storage compartment for Jackie. That little TV quit working a couple weeks ago and I found a replacement on Amazon which I had shipped to Donna's house. It was delivered yesterday. The TV took a couple of hours and I also did a few hours of office work and some household chores. It was a very quiet, but productive day. Wednesday we left the coach after lunch, about 1:00 or so, and did some more geocaching, this time to the North of Santa Maria. In the course of a few hours we were able to get another nine new finds, with no DNFs today. Yea! As a matter of fact, one of the caches we found was a DNF for us a year or so ago. After caching we stopped at a grocery store for a couple things, then met Corey at Scotty's bar again. We had a couple of drinks, then drove up to Donna's and spent another 90 minutes visiting with her. We left about 6:30 and drove back to the coach, had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, July 4^th, Happy Birthday America! We stayed around the coach until about 5:00 when we left to drove up to Donna's house for the fireworks show. As I have said before, her house overlooks the public pier in Pismo Beach and each year they do the city's fireworks show off the pier. This makes Donna's house the ideal place to watch the show. Back in the early 2000's, before we sold the house and went full time in the coach we used to drive up here from Indio to spend the Fourth of July with Donna and her late husband Barky. We were up here at least three different years, however, after wewent out in the coach we were never in this part of California during the summer, so we haven't seen a show from Donna's house since before 2005. The show doesn't start until 9:00 p.m., so we talked, had some cocktails and ate pizza for dinner. Corey had picked up some pizza at a local Italian place. At 9:00 the fireworks started and it was a great show. There were thousands of people on the beach as far as you could see and, because fireworks are legal in the Coastal counties over the Fourth, there were lots of private “shows” all over the area, but the main show off the pier was wonderful. As soon as the show ended we quickly got in the car and headed for the freeway because if we delayed too much all the people on the beach would have time to walk to their cars and the traffic would come to a standstill. We were able to get down off the hill and on to the freeway in less than 10 minutes and were home within a half hour. When we got back to the Elks lodge we felt that we were in a war zone. There were fireworks going up all over the neighborhood surrounding the Elks Lodge. We watched a little TV and went to bed listening to the bangs.

Friday, July 5^th, we had another stay at home day until about 4:00 when we left to drive to Nipomo, about five miles north, for dinner at Jocko's, our favorite steak house. We always go to Jocko's at least once anytime we visit this area, and today we were also celebrating Corey's birthday. Corey and Pia met us for dinner and the four of us had a wonderful dinner. I had the big, 20 oz rib eye, or Spencer as they call it here. Jackie and Pia had lamb and Corey had halibut. Everything was great except that Corey had to send the halibut back because it was overcooked. The second one was not too much better, still a little overdone, but he ate it anyway. We all took leftovers home. Donna didn't come tonight because she no longer does well in noisy, crowded places, so Corey took some food home to her. After dinner we drove back home, relaxed with the TV for a while. Our relaxation was interrupted about 8:15 while we were watching a movie on the TV. All of a sudden the coach was rocking back and forth and the shaking went on for about 20 seconds. Not real severe, but definitely detectable. Both of us said “earthquake” and decided that it was either a small one close by or a big one a way's off. Turned out to be a 7.1 quake about 150 miles northeast in the Mohave Desert near the town of Ridgecrest. They had experienced a 6.4 on the Fourth, which was the largest Southern California quake in over 10 years, but because it is a small, rural city there were no deaths or major injuries and only moderate property damage. They have had thousands of smaller after shocks from yesterday, but this new 7.1 becomes the main shock and even the 6.4 is now considered a “foreshock.” As soon as we felt the quake we switched to the Los Angeles network and within five minutes they had cut away from regular programming with news about the big quake. We watched that coverage until bedtime, but no more shaking for us.

Saturday, July 6^th, we went out after lunch and did some more geocaching in the southern area of Santa Maria and the small town of Orcutt. We got five new finds and three DNFs for our trouble. After caching we went back to the coach and just relaxed for the rest of the day and evening. Sunday we had our usual relaxing morning with the Sunday paper and morning TV shows. About 2:30 we left the RV park and drove to Grover Beach, a small community south of Pismo Beach, to visit Jackie's cousin Pia's house. We have seen Pia a couple of times since we have been here, but we wanted to see her new cat, Pickles. Pickles was a stray that they picked up near Bakersfield a couple months ago. Although in feral conditions, it clearly was not a lifetime feral cat as it quickly adapted to living with Pia and her significant other Wil. Pickles is a smallish female, about the size of Benji, who has some tabby markings and some calico coloring. A very pretty cat, and quite friendly. After visiting with Pia for a while we went on to Pismo Beach and spent a couple hours with Corey and Donna. About 6:30 we headed back to Santa Maria, did some burgers on the BBQ for dinner, and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Monday, July 8^th, was laundry day. We left the coach after lunch and went to a nearby laundry. The one we use is only a mile from the Elks, very big and fairly new, so the equipment is in good condition. They also have staff cleaning the place all day, so it is nice and clean, although there was a bit of a funky smell, probably a clogged drain somewhere. After laundry we did a Walmart run, then went back to the coach to put everything away. We had dinner, then watched TV until bedtime. Tuesday was our last full day here in Santa Maria. I did a little cleanup outside, took down the screens and got ready to travel tomorrow. About 2:30 we left and drove up to Pismo Beach and Donna's house. We spent a few hours with Corey and Donna. Pia was also supposed to be there, but she had to take her cat to the vet and got hung up there. About 6:00 we left Donna's, went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.

Wednesday, July 10^th, a travel day. We were packed up, hooked up and on the road about 10:45. Today's leg is about 132 miles to an RV park outside of the town of Coalinga, just off of Interstate 5. We got into the RV park about 1:30 and hooked up the utilities. Since we are only here for one night we didn't unhook the car, just set up the minimal stuff inside and relaxed for the rest of the day. This was the first time in two weeks we had to run the A/Cs. We went from a nice 75 to a toasty 95. Thursday was also a travel day, this time heading north on I-5 160 miles to Lodi. It was freeway all the way although we did make a fuel stop about 100 miles into the trip. We arrived at the Flag City RV park about 1:30 and got parked and set up. We are going to be here for three nights, so we have time to do some shopping, chores and geocaching. After we got set up we just relaxed in the coach for the rest of the day and evening.

Friday, July 12^th, we had a chores day in Lodi. We first went to a place in town called Fiori's Butcher Shoppe. Peggy had called Jackie and asked if, since we were in Lodi, could we go by Fiori's and pick up some of their special spice mix, salt, pepper, and a variety of other stuff. Apparently everyone in the Bullock family uses this stuff and they were running low. At Peggy's request we bought ten 16oz bottles to bring up with us next week when we go to Mineral. Fiori's also has a great deli, so we had lunch there. Jackie had a nice, big salad and I had an Italian hero type sandwich. The food was pretty good and the place was very busy. After lunch we went to a Great Clips and both got haircuts. Jackie does hers once a month or so, I go about five months between haircuts. We then went to the nail salon in the nearby Walmart to get our toes done. I just get a clip, Jackie gets a full pedi. Once that was done we did our grocery shopping, then headed back to the RV park. We got everything put away and stayed in for the rest of the day.

Saturday, July 13^th, we had a free day. About noon we left the coach and drove east about 45 miles to the town of Fairfield, a distant suburb of the Oakland/San Francisco metro area. We went to visit the Jelly Belly Candy Company and take the factory tour. For the one person out there who doesn't know what a Jelly Belly is, it's a small, gourmet jelly bean and they make a couple hundred different flavors. Those that have eaten them will attest that they pretty much taste like whatever they say it is. A good example is buttered popcorn. You put this little white jelly bean in your mouth, bite it and you taste buttered popcorn. They have every type of flavor you could want. The factory tour is very similar to what you get at the Tillamok Cheese factory. You go upstairs and then walk around the entire factory on a balcony that has windows looking down at the production floor. Unfortunately, we were there during the three week maintenance shutdown, so none of the machines were running and the only people on the floor were a couple of maintenance guys working on stuff. It was still very interesting as they have a bunch of short videos and a lot of displays to look at. We also got free samples for taking the tour. Yea! Of course, after the tour we went into the gift shop and I got a great tee shirt and a little stuffed animal jelly belly mascot for the dashboard of the coach. After the tour we did a couple of geocaches in Fairfield, then drove back to Lodi and did a couple more around the area where the RV park is. We ended up with seven new finds and one DNF. We went back to the coach and relaxed for a while, then about 6:00 we went to the Denny's across the highway for dinner. After dinner we went back to the coach, watched TV and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Sunday, July 14^th, another travel day. We packed up and were on the road a little after 10:00, heading north on I-5 to the city of Red Bluff. We arrived at the Red Bluff Elks Lodge about 1:30 and found an RV spot to park in. It was not difficult as we were the only one's there. They have 17 spots with 30 amp and water, with a dump station on site. We are here for two nights, so we set up and then went into Red Bluff to a Mexican restaurant called La Corona. Peggy had told Jackie that they had the best chili colorado in the area and we had to try it. We called and determined that they were closed tomorrow, so we decided to go for a late lunch. The food was very good as was the service. We had a great lunch, I did have the chili colorado and it was quite tasty. After lunch we went back to the coach and tried to stay cool by not moving around much. In 95 degree weather it is tough for the coach to stay cool inside with only the one air conditioner that you can run on 30 amps. We had a quiet rest of the day and evening.

Monday, July 15^th, we went out after lunch to Walmart to get some supplies, did two geocaches in the area, and went back to the coach. About 6:00 we walked over to the Elks Lodge, had a cocktail and then took in their weekly Monday steak sandwich. For $12 you got a good sized steak on a bun, fries or onion rings, and a salad bar. Not a bad deal. After dinner we went back to the coach and relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.

Tuesday, July 16^th, another moving day. Or so we thought until our world turned upside down. This morning we were going to leave Red Bluff and drive up the hill to Mineral, California where Peggy and Vernon have their “cabin” which they have added onto to the point where it is a huge house. We were going up there for the sixth annual 50^th Anniversary party. Back in 2013 they had a huge party for their 50^th, and it was so much fun and so many people came that they continued to have it every July. We missed a couple because of our travels, but this would be our fourth party. However, at 7:30 a.m. my phone rang (Jackie was still in bed) and it was a tearful Peggy telling me that her husband Vernon had died overnight! She said he fell, hit his head and died before she found him. You could have knocked me over with a straw. I woke Jackie up and told her the news and we had a good cry together. For the first few hours we were completely unsure as to what to do, but after talking to a couple of the other RVing couples we knew were supposed to come we decided to cancel our reservations in Mineral and find a place to stay down here in the valley, so we could be close but not right on top of the family. We were working on that prospect when Larry Bullock, one of their four children called and said that the family had decided to go ahead with the party this weekend, but now make it a celebration of life for Vernon. He is going to be cremated and there will be no funeral or service in accordance with his wishes. We decided to make a new reservation and go up on Thursday and stay until Monday.

Regular readers will know that we first met Peggy and Vernon in July of 2009 when we began our Alaska Caravan. They were parked right next door to us at the campground in Dawson Creek, B.C. and we immediately hit it off. We have been best friend's since and have traveled together at least four months of every year, gone to a lot of rallies together and partied a lot together. Vernon could be a grumpy old fart, but he had a big heart and was always there to help if you needed it. I think a lot of his grumpiness was because his health was poor. He had a bad heart, one heart attack under his belt already and his heart only worked about 40 percent. I think he was pissed off because he couldn't do physically what he wanted to do, was always tired and hurting. We had some great times together and we will miss him dearly. After we figured out what we were going to do, we spent the rest of the day inside just quietly mourning the loss of a great friend. RIP Vernon.

Wednesday, July 17^th, we left the coach about 12:30 and drove to the movie theater to see Stuber. Stuber is a silly, shoot em' up where a rough and tumble undercover cop undergoes laser surgery on his eyes to fix bad eyesight, and then gets a tip that an international drug trafficker he has been chasing for ten years is back in town. The drug king pin shot and killed our hero's partner ten years ago, so he has to go, but can't see, so he calls an Uber. Stu, a mild mannered East Indian gets the pickup and mayhem ensues. Lots of shooting, dying and running, car crashes and explosions, and, of course, a happy ending. Not Oscar material, but good escape-ism and funny. After the movie we stopped at Walmart for a couple things we forgot yesterday, then went back to the coach where we stayed in the rest of the day.

Thursday, July 18^th, we left Red Bluff about 10:00 and started the 42 mile trip up to Mineral and Peggy and Vernon's house. Jackie followed in the car, both because it was a short trip and because in the 42 miles the elevation changes from under 300 to over 5,000 feet. The last time we tried it towing the Jeep the coach overheated, so I decided to not take any chances this time. We made it in about an hour with the coach only getting a little hot a couple of times. We checked into the Mineral Lodge RV park, which is about a half mile from Peggy's place and got parked and set up. We are in the middle of a pine forest so there is no satellite at all, although I tried for several hours to get a signal. About 4:30 we drove to the house and had a nice get together with the Bullock family and a bunch of friends, most of whom we know well or at least have met at previous parties up here. We talked, reminisced about Vernon, and had some drinks, then a great pot luck dinner with lots of food. We left about 8:30, went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Friday, July 19^th we spent the morning in the coach and about 3:00 drove down to the house for the evening's party. I packed in the karaoke gear as there are several people in our circle of friends that like to sing. After I got the equipment set up we relaxed with some cocktails and chatted with friends. Tonight was just a whole bunch of different appetizers and snacks. About 6:00 I started the karaoke and was surprised that we had about six people in the group who liked to sing, and most of them were pretty good. We went until it got dark about 9:00 when the party pretty much broke up. I stored the gear until morning since it was on Peggy's back deck and it was pretty unlikely that anyone was going to come in to steal it. We went back to the coach, relaxed for an hour or so with our mobile devices, since we have no TV, and then went to bed. Another great evening.

Saturday, July 20^th, we went down to the house about 9:00 a.m. for Larry's famous breakfast burritos and bloody Mary's. We stayed for a couple hours, then went back to the coach, got cleaned up and relaxed for most of the day. About 3:30 we went back down to the house for dinner. There are still at least two dozen people hanging out, most of them either in the RV park where we are or the motel next door. Tonight was the big dinner with Peggy's son Larry making baby back ribs, and her daughter Katie making chicken. This was accompanied by a bunch of other food brought by guests. The food was excellent and after dinner everyone sat around a great big campfire in the back yard and told stories. About 9:00 the party broke up, we went back to the coach, read for a while and then went to bed.

Sunday, July 21^st, we again were down at the house around 9:00 for breakfast, today it was biscuits and gravy. Yum. We were there for a couple hours, then went back to the coach and cleaned up for the day.  We took a drive to the little town of Chester which is on Lake Almanor, about  30 miles Northeast of Mineral.  We drove around, got a few geocaches and had some ice cream before driving back to Mineral.  We went back to the house about 3:00 and the group was significantly smaller. By the time we had dinner at 6:00, leftovers from yesterday, it was Jackie and I, Peggy, and her daughter Katie. Everyone else had left to go home. We stayed until about 9:00, then went back to the coach and relaxed. Monday was our last day in Mineral. We went to the little cafe at the Mineral Lodge for lunch, then went to Peggy's house. Now it was just her and the dog, Belle. We helped her do some cleaning and packing around the house and about 4:00 she left to drive to Redding to spend a couple of nights with her son Matt. She has some doctor's appointments and some stuff to do take care of with Vernon and the estate. We went back to the coach and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing. Although we didn't have any live TV we were able to watch one of the movies we had on the DVR.

Tuesday, July 23^rd, we were packed up, hooked up and on the road by 10:00. We were only going a little over 70 miles to the Redding Elks Lodge. We arrived at the lodge around 11:30, got parked and did the basic setup. We have 50 amp, so we can run both air conditioners, and we need to because it is hot. We also now have TV again! Yea! After we got the basics done we drove to a nearby Thai restaurant and met Peggy for lunch. We had a nice lunch, then went back to the coach and finished setting everything up. We are staying here for three nights. Wednesday was a errands day. About 10:00 Peggy brought Belle over to the coach for us to dog sit for an hour or so while she ran some errands. She had spent the last couple nights with her son Matt, but was going back up to Mineral today. Peggy picked up the dog and we left the coach after lunch and first took a drive in the residential area near the Elks Lodge. Many of the homes in this area were burned in the Carr Fire, which devastated Redding and the surrounding communities almost exactly a year ago. All of the burned homes have been cleared, but most of the lots are still empty. We did see a couple of new homes and a couple more under construction, but last year was such a bad year for California and wildfires that there are just not enough construction workers for rebuilding the thousands of homes that were lost statewide.

After our little tour we drove to Costco for a few supplies. Mostly we needed to stock up on vodka since we are going into Oregon for a month and liquor is much more expensive up there because of their restrictive laws on liquor sales. After Costco we went the Walmart across the street for a few things. We then drove to Anderson, a small town about ten miles south of Redding, to pick up our mail at the UPS store After the UPS store we stopped at Camping World and browsed for a bit, then drove back to the coach. We spent the rest of the day and evening in the coach.

Thursday, July 25^th, we left the coach about 10:00 and drove back up to Mineral and Peggy's house. It took a lot less time in the car than going up in the coach. We went up there because Peggy's grandson Troy, his wife Makayla and their new baby Brooks, came in yesterday for a visit. They live in the Boise, Idaho area and couldn't make here in time for the celebration of life for Vernon. Matt had also brought up Troy's sister, Trinity, who is 14, and lives in Redding. We wanted to go back up to Mineral since we had not seen the family since last year, and at that time Makayla was still pregnant. We had lunch and spent about five hours visiting with the family. We left about 3:00 and drove back to the Elks, then spent the rest of the evening in the coach.

Friday, July 26^th, was a travel day. We are going about 165 miles north to Gold Hill, Oregon, finally getting out of California for a while. We left early, about 9:00 to try and avoid some of the heat. There are a lot of hills and mountain passes on the route north and I was worried about overheating. We made it to the Valley of the Rogue State Park without any problems, getting in about 1:00. We made it to our reserved space and got parked and settled in for our two week stay. We were quite disappointed to see that there was a great deal of smoke hanging over the Rogue River valley and the visibility was very bad. There is a large forest fire about 50 miles north of the State Park and the smoke is blowing down from that. It reminded us of what Redding was like this time last year when we were there during a big fire nearby.

We are now over three weeks since we published, so it is time to get this episode online. We are here in Gold Hill, in Southern Oregon, for two weeks, then we move to Northern Oregon for another two week stay. Until next time, remember that the secret of success is to go from mistake to mistake without losing your enthusiasm. See ya soon.

The Last Two Weeks in Pahrump then Finally Starting Summer Travels

Hi, glad you're back. Our last episode concluded on Saturday, June 8^th, with us still at the Wine Ridge RV Resort in Pahrump, Nevada, our legal home of record. Sunday was a quiet day, I went out in the morning and got the newspaper but other than that we stayed in and just relaxed for the day.

Monday, June 10^th, we decided we needed a day out, so we left the coach about 10:30 and drove into Las Vegas to see a movie. The movie theater we went to is located inside of the South Pointe Casino and Resort, which is the southernmost casino on Las Vegas Boulevard, the Vegas Strip. We saw the movie Rocketman, which is a musical bio-pic about the life of Elton John. It was really a great movie, lots of song and dance numbers, all to the sounds of Elton John music. There was a lot of stuff that went on in his life that I was not aware of. The movie was very cleverly written, starting out with a fully costumed John arriving to a group session in a treatment facility. The rest of the movie is out of stories he is telling to the group, starting with his early childhood. The acting and singing were good and the music was outstanding. Great movie. After the movie we stopped in the casino, we had to walk thorough it to get to the garage, and gamed for an hour or so. Jackie lost her $20, I ended being up $7. We then drove back to Pahrump, getting back to the coach about 4:30. We had cocktails and did hamburgers on the grill for dinner, then went to the clubhouse for poker night. Jackie was up about $5 and I broke even again. After cards we watched a little TV and went to bed.

Tuesday, June 11^th, we mostly had a stay at home day. We left the coach about 3:30, went out and got one new geocache that had recently been placed on the southwest side of town. We were the second to find on the cache. After that we went to the medical center for Jackie's appointment with her cardiologist. We waited quite a while for the doctor to come in, the perils of being given a late day appointment, but once he came in he was very pleasant and unhurried. He went over Jackie's perception of the angiogram, then discussed the results and gave Jackie a copy of the report. He talked to her again about symptoms and basically said that she needs to lose weight, exercise, watch her diet and probably take some meds to reduce the blockages and blood pressure. He confirmed her being on the low dose aspirin, but said he needed more data to decide on blood pressure meds. We will have to regularly take her blood pressure and come back to see him in October when we come back. The best thing he said was that she was at low risk of a heart attack or other cardiac event. Yea! After the doctor we went back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, June 12^th, we left the coach about 1:00 and went to the China Wok for lunch, then went and picked up mail and did a Walmart run. After Walmart we went back to the coach and we stayed in for the rest of the afternoon. Summer has finally hit Pahrump, with temps in the 100's for the next few days at least. About 6:30 we left again and drove down to the VFW hall for karaoke. The Duffins, as well as some of our other friends, were there. The rotation was short, only 7 singers at the most, so I got to do a lot of songs. We had a good time and sang until about 9:30 when we left and went back to the coach. We watched a little TV and went to bed. Thursday we were up and out of the coach by 10:00, heading to the dermatologist's office. After a pretty long wait we got in to see the doctor, actually the Nurse Practitioner, for our appointment. Jackie talked to him about a couple of cysts she has, but when he told her that he could take them out, but it would require at least one followup appointment, she decided to wait until October. The doctor told her he didn't see any problem with that as they seemed small and did not appear to be infected or irritated. He looked at the three places on me where he cut off some lesions a couple weeks ago and found they were pretty much healed up. He also told me that the labs came back negative on all three samples, good news too. After the doctor we went home and spent the rest of the day in the coach. I had a nice batch of Chili Colorado cooking, which we had for dinner. About 6:30 we went down to the clubhouse for poker. We had a good night, I ended up $9 to the good, and Jackie was up $3. Yea! We went back to the coach, watched a little TV and went to bed.

Friday, June 14^th, we had a quiet day at home. Got a few things done, but never left the coach except to do our walk in the morning. Saturday we left the coach about 12:30 and drove 25 miles to the Mountain Springs Saloon for lunch. The saloon is located in the little community of Mountain Springs, which sets at the summit of the pass through the Spring Mountains between Las Vegas and Pahrump on Highway 160. In the 12 years we have been Pahrump “residents” we

have talked about checking out the saloon when we drive over the pass. You can't see the saloon from the road, but they have a big sign. Today we decided to finally check it out. It is actually a complex of small, old wooden buildings just off the highway in the woods. The saloon is small, dark and has dollar bills tacked up on every surface. There is an attached game room, although it is at a different level, uphill from the bar. The restaurant, actually a BBQ cook shack, is separate and further up the hill. Most of the seating is outside, except for a few stools at the bar inside. Definitely a kitschy, dive bar, with a reputation as a biker hangout. Not too many bikers around today, in fact, there were only a dozen or so people in the area. We ordered food, Jackie had the “burnt ends” plate, which is the end pieces of ribs and briskets that are smoked. She said they were very good. I had a Zombie burger, which was a big, half pound burger with everything on it. The food was actually quite good and filling. It was also cooler up at the 6000 foot level and we had a nice lunch outside. We also had a drink with lunch. After lunch we drove back down to Pahrump, then stayed in for the rest of the day.

Sunday, June 16^th, my oldest daughter Tye's birthday, and also Father's Day this year. We had a stay at home day for most of the day. We did leave about 6:30 in the evening and drove over to the Escapee's RV park for another of Millie Duffin's little get togethers. There were a dozen people there, most of whom we know, or at least have met in the past. We had some snacks, played some games and just had great conversations. We left about 8:30, went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Monday, June 17^th, we left the RV park about 10:00 a.m. and drove into Vegas to go to the movies again. This time we saw The Secret Life of Pets II, which is an animated film. We had seen the first one in the theater a couple years ago, and just watched it again on TV a couple days ago. It is a cute movie, made for kids but with plenty of laughs and “inside” jokes for adults. We really enjoyed the film. The Cinemark Theater located in the South Pointe Casino has $8 senior tickets on Mondays, and they take another $4 off each ticket if you have a casino players card, so it only cost $8 for both of us. After the movie we went to Costco for gas and a few things in the store, then stopped so Jackie could get a haircut. After our errands we headed back over the hill to Pahrump. At 6:30 we went down to the clubhouse for poker. As good as I did on Thursday, I did just as badly tonight. I didn't win a single hand until the last half hour of play and ended up down $6. Jackie was down $2. After cards we went back to the coach, watched a little TV and went to bed.

Tuesday, June 18^th, was laundry day. We left after lunch, did our laundry, then picked up our mail. After that we went home, put everything away, made the bed and just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Wednesday we went out about 1:30 and went to the nail salon so Jackie could get a pedi and I could get my toenails trimmed. After the nail salon we did a Walmart run, then went back to the coach for a while. After dinner, about 6:30, we left again and went to the VFW hall for karaoke. We had a good group tonight, a dozen friends, about half of whom were singers. It was most of the group of friends who come to the Friday night karaoke at the RV park. We had a really good time and listened to some good singers and songs. We left around 9:30, went back to the coach, watched a little TV and went to bed.

Thursday, June 20^th, the last day of Spring. We left the coach about 12:30 and drove to the Red Sky BBQ restaurant for lunch. We met our friends Richard and Regina Rubinstien there. We had a wonderful lunch, with both Jackie and I ordering full racks of ribs. Their ribs are great and relatively inexpensive, and we wanted to be able to take leftovers home. After lunch we did a Walmart run and then went over to the Escapee's RV park to check where we are on the list to get in. We are now number 26, so maybe 18 months if we are fortunate. We then went home and relaxed for a while. We went down to the clubhouse for Texas Hold'em at 6:30, our last poker night until October when we get back here. I ended up down $5, after being down, then up and then down again. Jackie lost a dollar. We went back to the coach, watched a little TV and went to bed. Friday was a quiet day for the most part. I spent an hour or so cleaning up some of the outside decorations in preparation for our departure (finally) from Pahrump on Monday. Our friends Linda and CJ, who used to stay in Wine Ridge, but recently got into the Escapee's RV park, came over to talk. Linda is a karaoke junkie, and is an excellent singer, and she wants to get into doing karaoke gigs when the opportunity arises. She wanted to talk about equipment requirements, getting song files, and karaoke software. There were here an hour or so. After they left we just relaxed and spent the rest of the day in the coach and out of the wind.  Today a group of three vintage travel trailers, towed by classic vehicles, pulled into the park for the weekend.  The one that parked right next to us was an early 60's 18 foot travel trailer pulled by a nice, restored 1956 Chevy station wagon.  The wagon was painted purple and cream and the trailer had purple highlights on it.  The other two were also vintage trailers, one pulled by a late 60's Chevy stepside pickup, the other by a 68 Chevy El Camino.  Very nice looking neighbors.

Saturday, June 22^nd, we left the coach about 12:30 and drove to the Lakeside Casino for lunch. They have a great cafe and because the casino is a little ways out of town it is rarely too busy. We had a wonderful lunch and then stayed and gamed for about an hour. Both of us lost $40, but this will likely be our last casino stop until we get back to Pahrump in mid-October. After gaming we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. About 4:30 we left again and drove to the Elks Lodge for karaoke. We had just learned that within the last month or so they had started having karaoke on Saturday nights at the Lodge. Even though we are members of this lodge we didn't know about it because they never put anything in the monthly bulletin. We learned about from our friends Len and Debbie Forrest. After we got to the lodge all of our karaoke “group” of friends arrived as well. At one point we had as many as 12 singers in the rotation, but the singing went until 9:00 so we had time for five rounds. With a few exceptions all of the singers were great and we had a really fun time. I wish we had known about it weeks ago. After karaoke we went back to the coach, watched a little TV and went to bed.

Sunday, June 23^rd, our last full day in Pahrump. After lunch I spent a couple of hours doing some outside cleanup, getting ready to leave tomorrow. About 5:30 we left and drove to the Duffin's place at the Escapee's RV park for another party. This was a smaller group of friends, only a dozen or so, but we had a good time. We played some games and had some great conversations. The weather was really nice so we sat outside and talked until almost 9:30, after which we packed up and went back to the coach. We watched a little TV and went to bed.

Monday, June 24^th, the first of three travel days. We left the Wine Ridge RV resort about 10:15 and started our trek West towards our ultimate destination of Santa Maria, California on the Pacific coast. We stopped at the Smith's store in Pahrump to fuel up the coach, then headed out. Our first day was about 145 miles to Dagget, California, a little town outside of Barstow. On the way we stopped at the Mad Greek restaurant in Baker, California, a regular stop for us when passing through the area. We arrived at the Desert Springs RV park about 2:30. This was a one night stay, so we didn't unhook the car and did minimal setup. After we got set up we just relaxed. Tuesday we were up and out early to avoid the heat, leaving the park about 9:15. We continued West, passing through Barstow and then up and over the Tehachapai pass. We got an early enough start that we avoided overheating on the climb up the pass. We arrived at the Shady Haven RV park about 12:30, got checked in and parked. Again we left the car hooked up and just relaxed for the remainder of the day.

Wednesday, June 26^th, we were again on the road by 9:15, continuing West. We arrived in Santa Maria and the Elks Lodge about 12:30 and were pleased that instead of 105 it was 75 degrees. Yea! We had a little snafu when we arrived in that after we checked in at the office we found that there were no empty spots in their RV park. I checked with the office and the girl finally determined that they had mistakenly put one of their volunteer people in the full hook up area even though they had reservations for all the spots. They called this person and told him he had to move back to the partial hookup area. We finally got into our spot about 2:00 and got everything set up for our two week stay here. We are primarily here so Jackie can visit her family that lives in Pismo Beach, about 20 miles north of here. Her Aunt Donna, who turns 94 this week, and Donna's grandson Cory have a nice house on the hill overlooking the beach. Since we were tired and didn't finish setting up until late afternoon, we just stayed in for the rest of the day and evening.

Thursday, June 27^th, we left the Elks about 2:30 and drove north to Pismo Beach and Jackie's Aunt Donna's house. Donna's grandson Cory greeted us along with Donna and Pia, Jackie's cousin who lives nearby in Grover Beach, was also there. We had a great family reunion and sat around and visited for several hours. Sadly, Aunt Donna does not appear to be doing well since the last time we saw her, back in September of last year. Her health is deteriorating as well as her mental state. She still recognized Jackie, which is good. We left Donna's about 5:30 and drove back to the Elks. We cooked some chicken on the BBQ for dinner and then watched TV until bedtime. Friday was a shopping day. We left the coach about 1:00 and went to In N' Out for lunch. We then

went to Best Buy to check on TVs. The small, 22 inch TV in the bedroom has quit working and we are looking for a replacement. We then went to Walmart. Because the Central Coast will not allow Super Walmart's, they have a regular Walmart and then a Walmart Neighborhood Market almost next to each other in the same shopping area. After visiting both Walmart's we went to Costco and spent a pile of money replenishing our freezer stock of meats. After our shopping we headed back to the coach and spent another hour putting everything away. We had dinner, then watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, June 29^th, we left the coach about 2:30, stopped at KFC for a big bucket of chicken, then headed back to Pismo Beach. Today is Donna's 94^th birthday and we were going to have a little family celebration. It was us, Cory, and Pia, but we sang happy birthday, ate dinner and then had some ice cream cake. It was a good celebration and Donna was a little more chipper today than she had been the other day when we were here. We left about 7:00, drove back to Santa Maria and then just stayed in for the rest of the evening.

We are going to be here in Santa Maria for another ten days before moving to Northern California, and this marks three weeks since we published. With all that, it seems to be a good time to close this episode and get it published. Until next time, remember to go through life like a duck. Majestic on top, kicking like hell underneath. See ya next time.